Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros: Book Review
Beware! This post may contain spoilers!
Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
The Empyrean, Book 3
Published January 21, 2025
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.
Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming…and not everyone can survive its wrath.
Let me first say that I genuinely and unashamedly enjoyed Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. While it wasn’t by any means the first romantasy book I had ever read, I also hadn’t read too many of them before picking up Fourth Wing. And maybe because I didn’t have a lot to compare it to (something I couldn’t say when reading Onyx Storm), or maybe because it felt fresh, and engaging, and just what I needed to get me out of a longwinded reading slump, I had a lot of fun while reading it.
Compared to Fourth Wing, Iron Flame didn’t have a hold on me quite in the same way, but I still enjoyed it. It did drag and feel repetitive, but it still managed to hold my attention long enough that the tense cliff-hanger of an ending kept my interest piqued to see what came next.
Unfortunately, despite my anticipation, Onyx Storm just fell flat.
I’m wondering if because after I finished the initial two books in this series, I started reading so many other romantasy books that came before Rebecca Yarros’s The Empyrean series, Violet Sorrengail and her story just didn’t feel as new and exciting to me anymore. It’s very clear where Yarros has been inspired by other’s works.
I think what made Fourth Wing feel unique despite these similarities was how Yarros managed to package everything together (and I mean, who doesn’t love dragons?). But what was fun about this series seems to feel lacking the longer it drags on.
My least favorite aspect of Fourth Wing was always the battle sequences, and with Onyx Storm being littered with them, I found my attention really waning as the story progressed. At a certain point, it’s just not interesting to read some variation of the same fight over and over again.
I wish I could have liked it more. I feel like the longer this series goes on, the less interest I have in seeing it through. And the cliff-hanger ending this time just felt like an attempt to create artificial interest in continuing the series that the rest of the novel hadn’t earned.
I really want to keep enjoying The Empyrean series! I know wrapping a story up is a lot harder than starting it out, but I’m really hoping Yarros can find a way to stick the landing with this one. I just worry it may already be too late.
Have you read Onyx Storm?
What did you think of it?
Let me know!
Liza
Liza is a twenty-something book blogger who spends way too much time with her nose in books and feels way too much. She loves cooking, baking, reality tv show watching and, of course, reading. She can be found most often with a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. Her blog, Literary Liza, features bookish content like reviews, recommendations, and author interviews.
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